Minimum-wage bills raise economic and social-justice arguments

Published March 7, 2013 at 11:42 am

by T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporterA teenager slicing toast with one hand and brandishing a cell phone in the other isn’t worth $10 an hour, businesswoman Peggy Rasmussen told state senators on Wednesday (March 6).Rasmussen, owner of Peg’s Countryside Cafe on Highway 55 in Medina, appeared before a Senate committee reviewing minimum-wage-increase legislation. One of the bills, authored by Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, aims to raise the state minimum wage for large employers to $10.55 an hour over two years — current federal minimum wage paid by most businesses is $7.25.
Tyler Newman, a college student from Eagan, read a statement before a Senate committee on Wednesday (March 7) in support of a state minimum wage increase. (Photo by T.W. Budig)

The bill would push the minimum wage for smaller employers in two years to $9 an hour, and in both cases add an adjuster for inflation..

But it’s “unprecedented” to raise the minimum wage so high, so quickly, as bills propose, he said.

Others saw the wage issue differently.

Nicole Hilgendorf, a server from Minneapolis, said the idea that just college students or young people work as waiters and waitresses is untrue.

Many restaurant workers are older people with families and homes.

Waiting is their career, she said.

Tyler Newman, a college student from Eagan, said in the 1960s a college student could work part time and pay for tuition.

No more, he said.

Raising the state minimum wage to $10.55 an hour would allow students to attend college and graduate without crushing debt, Newman argued.

According the Jobs Now Coalition, the federal minimum wage — which is applied in most minimum-wage jobs — translates to about $15,000 a year for a full-time worker.

At such an amount, a couple with two children would have to work 155 hours a week to meet basic family needs, the group says.

Only four other states or territories –Wyoming, Arkansas, Georgia and Puerto Rico – have state minimum wages below the federal level, as Minnesota does, according to the group.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, spoke of a commission to end poverty by 2020 touring the state, making recommendations, and of passing time.

“It’s a sad situation,” Marty said.

Rather than being idle, many poor families work multiple jobs, he explained.

“Ending poverty is a question of political will,” Marty said.

“I think workers deserve the dignity of a decent wage,” he said.

Marty is offering legislation to increase the minimum wage for large employers — defined as those with gross sales more than $625,000 — to $10 an hour beginning in August, $10.75 an hour beginning next year.

Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center, is proposing legislation to increase the state minimum for large employers from $6.15 an hour to $7.50 an hour.

Eaton, though not proposing to increase the state minimum wage for small employers — those under the $625,000 threshold — proposes to place the state minimum wages on automatic cost-of-living adjustment.